Cameras to monitor glacial melting in Everest

Cameras will now try end doubts on the impact of climate change in glaciers in the Himalayan region. Last week five cameras were placed at the Mt Everest region for this purpose, reports Utpal Parashar.

Cameras will now try end doubts on the impact of climate change in glaciers in the Himalayan region. Last week five cameras were placed at the Mt Everest region for this purpose.

Experts from Extreme Ice Survey, an US organization installed the solar panel powered cameras on vertical rock faces with the aim of monitoring melting of glaciers over the next two years.

The cameras will capture images with the help of time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video all of which will be analysed after every six months.

The US organization is already carrying out similar studies in Alaska, Iceland, Greenland and Bolivia.

In the past photographs taken over a period of time and satellite images were the basis of studies on the movement of glaciers. This is the first time time-lapse photography will be used in Himalayas to study them.

The single lens reflex (SLR) cameras would click a photograph every 30 minutes and after every six months the photos would be joined together to make a short video on the movement of the glaciers.

“It will provide raw images and visual record on the movement. This is important from the climate change and geological perspectives as well,” said eminent Nepali mountaineer Dawa Stevan Sherpa who is involved in the project.

He stressed that the idea behind the installation was not to prove or disprove any existing theory on the rate of melting of Himalayan glaciers, but to provide visual evidence for scientists to reach their own conclusions.

At the end of the two-year period, Nepal government would be provided with data on the movement of glaciers. The images would also be posted on the Internet to help those studying glaciers.